George R.R. Martin Mediates Showdown Between Characters from ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Lord of the Rings’

While many fans of the fantasy genre adore both George R.R. Martin's novels 'A Song of Ice and Fire,' which have been adapted into the hit HBO show 'Game of Thrones,' and J.R.R. Tolkien's eternal classic 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy, many fans have both pondered and fiercely argued which of Tolkien's characters would survive a face-off between one another.In an interview with MTV, Martin explains his choices and actually puts a lot of thought into it. And the way he explains it, some, if not all, of his choices do make sense.

First off, he says that Jamie Lannister would win over Aragorn in a sword fight. While the King of Gondor is tough and has experience as a Dunedain Ranger, Jamie is one of the greatest -- if not the greatest -- swordsmen of Westeros. Martin also says that Boromir would win over Ned Stark because Boromir was trained to be a warrior whereas Stark was trained to be a Lord and a diplomat. When asked if the Mountain would be able to defeat Gimli in a fight, Martin makes a good point: Gimli would win because he could strike at his legs with his ax and bring him down.

When it comes to the fantastical creatures in both Middle-Earth and Westeros, Martin's answers are surprising. He feels that Smaug would be able to defeat Balerion the Black Dread because Smaug is intelligent and possesses the power of speech. The wargs would also defeat the direwolves due to the fact that they are larger and more intelligent hybrids. The Nazguls would be able to defeat the White Walkers because, as Martin says, "they have wings" which would give them the advantage in a fight.

While this may satisfy some fans, others may disagree with Martin's answers. So it seems that message boards will have even more fodder for this eternal debate! Check out the interview below.